Equanimity: US court order compounds injustice, says claimants

The California Central District Court did not sufficiently analyse the arguments against granting the US government protective custody of the superyacht Equanimity, said its registered owners Equanimity (Cayman) Ltd.

“The California court has improperly attempted to nullify the findings of the Indonesian court that the FBI-instigated seizure of the vessel was improper and legally baseless.

“The court’s order compounds the injustice of the illegal seizure by contravening US law governing the arrest of property located abroad and Indonesian law governing legal assistance to foreign countries attempting to seize assets in Indonesia.

“The court's order does not sufficiently analyse the important legal principles raised by claimants (owners of Equanimity) in these proceedings,” it said in a statement last night following the court’s decision on May 15.

It said is disappointed but not surprised by the decision, and will take advantage of the 30-day stay on the custody order granted by the court to challenge the decision.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) had applied for protective custody of the Equanimity on March 27, arguing that the vessel’s crew are beholden to the Penang-born financier Low Taek Jho and thus could not be trusted to bring the vessel to the US even under a court order.

The DOJ had filed a civil forfeiture suit on the US$250 billion vessel last year claiming that it was bought using the proceeds of misappropriated 1MDB funds that had been laundered through the US financial system, and that Low owns the vessel through a series of intermediaries including Equanimity Ltd.

Low had purportedly denounced these as politically-motivated allegations, while 1MDB had insisted its money is accounted for.

Judge Dale S Fischer had, on May 15, granted the protective custody order, telling the vessel’s claimants to turn over control and custody over the vessel to the US gov’t and the parties involved to reach an agreement on how to bring it to the US.

In her written judgement, she said this would not violate Indonesian sovereignty because custody over the Equanimity had been returned to the claimants and was no longer in custody of the Indonesian police, which had seized it on Feb 28.

She said she also found none of the claimant’s other arguments persuasive. -Mkini